Microsoft to launch Minecraft: Education Edition in November

Minecraft: Education Edition price and release date

The block-building world of ‘Minecraft’ will take over classrooms across the world on November 1. The video game developers from Mojangannounced the ‘Education Edition’ of ‘Minecraft’ would finally be available as a standalone before Christmass.

The project called ‘MinecraftEdu’ had been in development since Microsoft acquired the development studio. It counts with five years of alpha and beta testing with the involvement of real educators and young students all over the world

The educational video game features many of the original title’s features but adds didactic elements like lesson plans to provide an innovative learning experience. Schools and institutions will be able to purchase ‘Minecraft: Education Edition’ for just $5 per user, although there is also a deal for entire districts who wish to get a license for the game.

The Classroom Mode creates a social learning environment

The introduction of ‘Minecraft’ as a modern teaching tool intends to be a fun and engaging way for both teachers and students to create amazing new things.

Microsoft and Mojang released the latest version of ‘Minecraft: Education Edition’ to more than 35,000 students all over the world back in June for free. The Early Access version of the game provided the feedback necessary to launch a full-fledged title.

The game will include a project management mode called Classroom Mode. The teacher will be able to monitor and tweak the settings of the ‘Minecraft’ environments. Moreover, it lists all of the students in that world and integrates a chat for simple communication.

The education edition is for kids of all ages

A significant component of ‘Minecraft: Education Edition’ experience is the open-world qualities inherent to the game. Its ‘sandbox’ nature may be too overwhelming for educators who are not used to playing video games, but it proves to be a powerful creating tool for students at their sharpest age.

For those who just cannot work with such a massive and complex white canvas, Mojang has devised a series of pre-loaded Lesson Plans with clear themes and objectives for teachers. According to the students’ age, lessons get increasingly more complicated.

Ages 14+ integrate subjects like City Planning and Sustainable living, but teachers can just pop up a new world and let students roam free and play the way ‘Minecraft’ is supposed to be played.

Educators and students first diving into the ‘Minecraft’ universe can run through a tutorial first. As soon as they master the block-building craft, they can even submit their Lesson Plan creations to Mojang for official approval and publishing.

‘Minecraft: Education Edition’ will be available for PC and Macs running Windows 10 and OS X El Capitan respectively on November 1.